TenEyck said the chain is relying more on hydroponic or greenhouse tomatoes to meet the demand. Normally Safeway's inventory is evenly divided between vine-ripened and hothouse tomatoes, but now nearly 70 percent come from greenhouses, he said.
Prices aren't rising at Red Lobster or the Olive Garden, but both chains are taking Roma tomatoes out of their dishes, substituting a different variety that hasn't been hit quite as hard by the shortage. Mike Bernstein, spokesman for Darden Restaurants Inc., which owns both chains, declined to identify the new tomato "for competitive reasons," but he said that only true connoisseurs can taste the difference. "Most guests in our restaurants around the country won't notice the change," he said.
Bad weather ruined much of the tomato crop in Florida. Plastic was ripped from hothouses on this farm in Wimauma, Fla.
(Skip O'rourke -- St. Petersburg Times)
|
|
At Wendy's International Inc., the company reported recently that high tomato prices will cut into fourth-quarter earnings. To minimize the damage, the fast-food chain has altered its marketing strategy. Wendy's had been planning to promote its Chicken Temptation sandwich in October, but scrapped that plan because the sandwich includes a large slice of tomato. "What we didn't want to do was show a national advertising campaign with a juicy tomato and then have problems with supply or quality," Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini said.
Instead the chain featured its new kids' meal and its chicken strips.
Ray Gilmer, spokesman for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, said tomato prices should begin to ease in December as farmers whose fields were devastated by repeated blasts from hurricanes manage to get their crops to market. Most farmers, he said, had to start from scratch after the summer storms. "The hurricanes blew through and pretty much destroyed the fields," he said.
The domestic tomato industry produces 3.5 billion pounds of fresh tomatoes annually, and 2 billion more are imported, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Tomatoes weren't the only agricultural product damaged in the hurricanes, though their loss has been felt most acutely. Prices for bell peppers and cucumbers have also gone up, though both are less in demand than tomatoes. The hurricanes extensively damaged citrus groves, but Gilmer said much of the Florida citrus industry is devoted to juice, of which there was already a large supply in reserve.
Tina Fitzgerald, who buys produce for the sandwich chain Subway, said she foresees a difficult two weeks ahead as tomato suppliers scrounge around for whatever's left on the market. "What we're taking is what was salvageable," she said. "But people don't stop coming into Subway just because the tomato market is high. They expect to get tomato on their subs."
All Subway franchise owners have been given signs to display in their stores indicating that because of the hurricanes, they may be out of certain toppings. If they have tomatoes, however, sandwich makers are under strict instructions not to skimp. "That would be heresy if we did that. We want customers to get what they're expecting," said spokesman Les Winograd. "We're not going to ration tomatoes."
